Preliminary Study of Chalcolithic Lithic in the West of Kurdistan Province

Based on the progress that has happened in pottery production and the use of metal during the chalcolithic period, recognition of the Chalcolithic tools is vital. The present article discusses the techno-typology of Chalcolithic lithics in the three sites of Namashir, Bardeh, and Ghazi Khan in the west of Kurdistan province. Therefore, the main questions are (1) is the technology of making tools in Kurdistan a post-Mlefaatian tradition? And (2) Do tool-making traditions change over time? The hypothesis of this research is typical characteristics known as the Post-Mlefaatian. The results show that in the early and middle phases, the tools are primary and include scrapers. But in the late Chalcolithic phase, the production of long blades and sickle blades segments indicates the use of new technology in the production of tools and the possibility of making them in specialized workshops. The abundance of sickle blades is clearly an indicator of agriculture in the late Chalcolithic phase. The existence of obsidian as a raw material imported to this region, as well as the sickle blades with non-local resources, indicate the regional and trans-regional communications.
Keywords: West of Kurdistan, Chalcolithic Period, Lithics.
 
Introduction
The study of stone artifacts provides a clear view of the economic system, raw material, technology of making tools, agriculture, and trade in different periods. The Chalcolithic lithics in the Kurdistan Province are important in two cases (1) Stone artifacts of this period has been obtained from excavations, stratigraphy, and delimitation and from layers, and (2) Although these findings are not numerous, but this article is the first studies on stone artifacts in the Kurdistan.
 Few studies of stone artifacts have carried out in the Chalcolithic period in the Zagros region, Tepe Asiab (Brenbeck et al., 2011), Harsin (Mortensen & Smith, 1977), Tepe Godin (Rothman, 2003), Chogha Golan and Tuwah Khoshkeh by Abdi (Abdi 2002: 59-63).  The studies of Chalcolithic lithics in Tepe Gheshlagh (Hariryan et al., 2021), in the South of Zagros, the stone artifacts in the Chalcolithic period (post-Melfaatian tradition) were divided into 2 phase: old and new post-Mlefaatian tradition (Nishiaki et al., 2013; 2018) and in the north of Mesopotamia (Khalidi & Gratuze, 2013; Thomalsky, 2012) are the most recent studies in the Chalcolithic period. Stone artifacts obtained from the excavation of Tepe Namashir (Karimi, 2012; Saed moucheshi et al., 2017), Tepe Bardeh (Khosravi, 2017), and Ghazikhan site (Karimi, 2011) provide a set of tools for techno-typo analysis of artifacts in the west of Kurdistan province (Figure 1). I this area, Tepe Namashir with layers of the Chalcolithic period (early and late Chalcolithic phases 1 and 2) and Tepe Bardeh and Ghazikhan site (late phase 2) provide a set of lithic artifacts to study of the Chalcolithic period (Table 1).
Due to the different pottery cultures that exist in the east and west of Kurdistan, to better understand these cultural interactions, along with pottery, stone artifacts can also play an important role in clarifying the cultural relations of the region. According to the primary model of Kozlowski’s (see: Kozlowski, 1999). The tool-making tradition in the Zagros (Mlefaatian) are divided into three stages of old Mlefaatian (Aceramic Neolithic), late Mlefaatian (early ceramic Neolithic), and post-Mlefaatian (late ceramic Neolithic to Chalcolithic). In the late Mlefaatian, geometric tools and fine-backed bladelets are produced. In the post-Mlefaatian phase (sixth and fifth millennia BC) the production of backed bladelets was disappeared and the manufacture of blades and sickle elements with pressure technique was started (Kozlowski, 1999; Nishiaki et al., 2018). This research is the initial study of stone artifacts in the Chalcolithic period in the Kurdistan of Iran. Now, based on the past studies, the analysis of new data and understanding of tools making tradition in the Chalcolithic period is critical.
 
Conclusion
The lithic tools from west of Kurdistan include sickle blades, simple and retouched blades, bladelets, borers, notched, scrapers. Unfortunately, we do not have absolute dating and the chronology of sites based on a Comparative study of pottery. The relative chronology of the Tepe Bardeh is unclear, two points are to be considered (1) The regular sickle blades are absent in the Middle Chalcolithic period in Kurdistan, and (2) the technology of blades are similar to the late Chalcolithic phase 2 in the Gheshlagh Tepe and Namashir III. Therefore, the discussed above supports the hypothesis that the blades and sickle blades in the Bardeh are related to the late Chalcolithic phase.
 The manufacturing of tools in the sixth and fifth millennium BC in the Zagros is known as the post-Mlefaatian tradition (Kozlowski, 1999). The tools production with pressure flake technique and production of long blades and sickle elements is one of the features of this tradition. Nishiaki divides the post-Mlefaatian period into two stages based on data from southwestern Iran (Nishiaki, 2019; 2013). The difference between the early phase and the late phase is in the use of cores. In the early phase, the use of bullet core is common and in the late phase, unifacial core and shiny elements are appeared (see: Nishiaki, 2019).
Due to the lack of tools in the early phase in the west of Kurdistan province, the tradition of manufacturing tools in this phase has been indigenous, it has been based on daily needs. The tools of this phase in Namashir Tepe are a notched blade, scrapers, and a retouched bladelet. The tools are made by hard hammer and the primary flakes are best associated with this technology. It seems to have been used for Ad Hoc technology until the end of the Chalcolithic period. In the late Chalcolithic phase, the napper used pressure technology to the production of large sickle blades. At this phase, the striking platform of the blades, sickle blade, and bladelet is punctiform and linear and the blub of percussion is very imperceptible.
The sickle blades in Tepe Bardeh different from of Namashir and Ghazi Khan samples and these differences are (1) varying in size between 2 and 8 cm in length, (2) the presence of retouching in the truncation (N: 31 = 47%) which indicates a new technology, (3) the presence of fine and delicate retouching along the working edge and (4) edge retouching close to the back axis. Table 4 shows the Summary of average sickle metrics according to type with standard deviations. The blade is somewhat longer than the sickle blade segments. In general, in the Chalcolithic period, two points are to be considered. First, the tools were manufactured on flakes such as scrapers, borers, and notches. There is no specific pattern and standardization for this manufacture, and second, use of post-Mlefaatian tradition in the manufacture of sickle blades, which has occurred in the Late Chalcolithic. It seems that this technology was as prevalent in the Zagros region. In the west of Kurdistan, the manufacture of sickle blades in Bardeh and Namashir are different in size and retouch on cutting section, and this characteristic shows a unique technology, a combination of Mlefaatian and local traditions. This feature can be considered as a technology transition from the post-Mlefaatian tradition to the late phase in the west of Kurdistan. However, this is not an innovation for the transition period, but it shows a unique and new technology in Kurdistan.